Central Hostel — Hotel in London

It's not worth it. I know it sounds like a deal until you actually get there. The guy who works there gives of a vibe like he genuinely hates you. Every time someone walks up a floor to get to a bathroom (unisex toilets and showers, not as fun as it sounds!) And flushes or uses any water it rushes through he exposed piping so loud it sounds like 200 rats shreaking and scampering. All night. A vagrant Frenchman with horrible hygiene lived full time in the room I was in. Imagine 2 jail cells together, now add 6 bunk beds. That's right 11 beds full of the world's lower class. No closets, sink, window! I had to sleep on my luggage. There's no space to put anything. People come and go, just name a time and it's lights on "sorry! Hey can someone turn this out when I leave?" (The single light is deep into the room and its a maze of beds.) Unisex showers might be a neat idea, but toilets in practice are NOT! Trust me, your bowel movement will be CLEARLY heard by everyone even on lower floors. Please don't go here. The desk agent, under no authority tried to get me to "surrender" my passport. He was gonna get it copied and sell it. Yes I'm not a native but I'm not biased. You'd feel the same, this guy tried to forcefully take it from me and pushed me! I'm glad my friend was there he checked that guy without any violence. Just some...loud commanding statements. He gave me my passport back as he had yanked it away, but told us we were "kicked out" for not letting him "file my passport" No refund. I paid for 10 days and stayed 2 days one night. So yeah did I save money? Ha, then after literally going door to door and approaching midnight, there was just "no room at the inn" anywhere. So we paid a regular guy the first car we saw to take us to the airport to spend the night. Not kidding the chairs there were Queen pillow tops compared to Central Hostel bunks. This is half of the zoo that is Central. Let's me just say the smell of the place and the people was..less than pleasant. I guess you get used to strange travelers breathing on you and coughing on you. That's what one "roommates told me. He didn't have to talk so loud I mean we we're maybe 65cm apart. I'll put my real name And reputation on all this being true. I can only hope it got better, but I don't see it. Ok one more and that's it...picture a big house built around or just after ww2. Big 3 story thing. Now imagine a cat lady lived there and didn't clean. Ok. Then she dies, they find her a week on, and the relatives think...this place could be a hostel! That's exactly what it smelled like. Foulness is embedded inside. Dang. I'm usually nice man who loves to laugh but poorly run places like that just get me mad. Please the least I can do is help your trip to be better. DONT STAY HERE PLEASE!!! Oh unless you'd like to apply as a housekeeper. The downside....you'll be the only...

DO NOT STAY HERE, it’s a health hazard & should be shut down. I am reporting it to ‘higher authority’ for investigation. If I could give a zero rating I would!

5 shared showers. Only 4 work (no brackets for shower hose though), and only 2 of them have hot water.

People actually argue over the shower. I was there 3 nights and on 2 nights I heard arguments in the corridor over the length of time someone was in the shower because only 2 are warm and there’s too many people per working shower.

There’s only a few toilets. 2 on the first level (shared) and 2 on the second level (male & female). The two on the first level don’t flush. The sewerage backs up and fills the toilet. They have a plunger next to the toilets instead of fixing the problem. The female toilet upstairs doesn’t close properly and the door handle comes off which means you can get locked inside.

Mould EVERYWHERE, I’ve got plenty of photos to prove it. Absolutely filthy, only reason I stayed was because I prepaid and there’s a no refund policy (wonder why)!

Mattresses are well past needing to be replaced. Springs sticking out and very uncomfortable. The bed don’t have lats, they have old springs which have been replaced by board. The old springs haven’t been removed and are hanging down. I was on the bottom bunk and kept ripping my hair on the springs hanging down from the top bunk.

There’s no railings around the top bunks so it’s very easy to fall off. Also no ladders to top bunks so it is extremely difficult to fall out of bed.

Rat poison under beds. Dropped my pillow off bed and found it paying on rat poison.

Smells like damp foist everywhere.

No atmosphere. Hardly any backpackers there. The only communal area is the first room you walk through when you enter the property. There is a table with a couple of chairs, permanently occupied by the same people on laptops. The “reception” desk is in the same room and is facing the chairs so you feel like you are being watched.

Mostly immigrants living permanently in shared rooms, who are very aggressive towards backpackers. Also have an excessive amount of stuff under everyone else’s beds and are very fussy and angry about you coming anywhere near touching their stuff.

Staff are very rude. I had to give my licence for a key deposit because I didn’t have any cash on me. When I checked out I was given someone else’s driving licence. I am a woman and the licence belonged to a man, which means they don’t even check ID properly and they don’t look after it properly.

Feels very unsafe for visitors. I actually locked my suitcase to my bed with a bike lock.

The kitchen is a poor excuse for a kitchen. It is just a sink & microwave.

DO NOT GET FOOLED BY THE AWESOME PAINT JOB.

This looks like a once thriving place which is now run down and in bed management. Very...

Dreadful.||My girlfriend and I stayed for a couple of nights, and from the very first moment there was problems all around.||We had a delayed flight from Barcelona and managed to get to the Hostel in the evening; once there, the receptionist, an italian girl with glasses (who, like every other staff member in the accomodation, doesn´t even greet the guests and even avoid visual contact...) told us we couldn´t pay with credit card ´cause their machine was broken (since who knows when), and we ought to withdraw cash form an ATM (which, without having a bank account in England, means paying comission). Instead of giving solutions ( I´ve worked in Hotels and Hostels for a while, and even thought about asking for the 24h support contact number these card machines have in order to fix the situation...She phoned her "manager" instead, literally saying: "there´s two people here that don´t want to pay with cash". No one told us about this situation before getting to the Hostel, otherwise we´d have withdrawn the cash before flying to London...The whole situation made us both feel stranded as the receptionist didn´t even care.||||They still made us pay the deposit for the room key even after all this situation, once we payed the reservation with cash (it would have been a detail from that receptionist part to waive the key deposit for once, after rippinf us off and out of our money)||||The rooms look grimmy, dirty, messy...there´s no lockers, no hairdriers to be seen, and in case you need a towel, you have to BUY one for 6 Pounds...||||Next days, none of the members of the reception said "hello", "good morning"...those polite ways to make the guests feel a little bit safe and welcome in any accomodation.||||It is obvious there´s quite a lot of problems in the Hostels facilities, but the worst of all is the attitude of the staff.||||Will never recommend or stay in this lair again...what...